1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicular image recorder and more particularly to a multi-camera vehicular image recorder having an adjustable camera angle.
2. Description of the Related Art
The historical development of moving picture cameras can be traced back quite some time ago, to the early film cameras, which are gradually evolved to the latest digital video cameras and recorders. Such development also resulted in camera downsizing and improved the portability thereof. In consideration of safety surveillance, cameras, such as drive recorders, may be applied to record for evidence collection or restoration of truth, ensuring that safety or personal rights or other concerns are not jeopardized for lack of solid evidence and mutual understanding.
Drive recorders in the current market taking the form of a small camera are dedicated to fulfilling the need of safety surveillance. When a traffic violation occurs, or when a traffic accident occurs between two or more drivers, the liability of each involved party is difficult to be determined and/or proven due to insufficient evidence on the spot. This is why drive recorders are brought into play and gain popularity among many drivers, including police cruiser use.
Most of the current drive recorders pertain to single-view image recorders. In other words, the view angles of the cameras of the drive recorders are fixed and only specific view angles are allowed. When the view angles of the cameras are oriented to their extreme corners, unclear and low quality images are inevitable. To cope with this circumstance, some users adjust the camera angles, upwardly, so that recorded images above the line of sight of the driver's will be recorded by the video recorders. However, such adjustment of the view angle makes it impossible to capture images or video as seen from the driver's normal line of sight. This makes it impossible to record video of objects directly in front of the vehicle. In addition, some cameras require that the driver adjust the zoom or magnification or angle on the camera lens to capture images of objects or other vehicles near the equipped vehicle. This is a distraction to the driver and cannot be done safely while in motion and causes the driver to interact with the camera system to record high quality video or images when not in motion. Drivers may not have time to adjust these cameras, particularly in situations of police cruiser use.